Walmart Case

Wal-Mart

At the beginning of the class I found out that I have to evaluate a public company. Wal-Mart came to mind immediately. Why did I choose Wal-Mart? The answer is simple. I think the company’s founder had a very basic business model. Sam Walton wanted to achieve higher sales volumes by keeping sales prices lower than his competitors by reducing his profit margin. The company is still operating under this old principle since May 9, 1950. By 1967, the company grew to 24 stores across the state of Arkansas, and had reached $12.6 million in sales.

The company’s first stock split occurred in May 1972 at a market price of $47. By this time, Wal-Mart was operating in five states: Arkansas, Kansas, Louisiana, Missouri and Oklahoma. As the company moved into Texas in 1975, there were 125 stores with 7,500 associates and total sales of $340.3 million. The company continued to add stores all over the United States and made some smart acquisitions. In February 1988, the first Wal-Mart Supercenter opened in Washington, Missouri. The supercenter concept features everything contained in a standard Wal-Mart discount store, in addition to tire and oil change shop, optical center, banks and other fast food outlets. In 1990, US sales had reached to 32 billion dollars. Since then the company continues to grow rapidly, Wal-Mart acquired 122 Woolco stores from Canada. In addition, it opened three value clubs in Hon Kong, and has 96 stores in Mexico. In 1997, Wal-Mart replaced Woolworth on the Dow Jones Industrial Average. The company had its first $100 billion sales year. Also this year, they acquired 21 Wertkauf stores in Germany, and introduced their One Source nutrition centers.

The current state of financial health of the company is very strong and the outlook for the future is very positive. This pattern of growth continues as of today, the company has 3,898 units as of May 31, 2013. They own 612 Sam’s Club, Wal-Mart